I predict a MSI board that has issues, like most of the other MSI boards i have used. Alot of PCI-e but only four useable, but at least when you encounter a wierd issue you can use the rear reset button instead of trying to dig into a crowded case to reset a completely locked up system.

On top of that, MSI have some of the dumbest slot layouts on the market.
Just look at their 790FX-GD70, where on earth should you put your sound card? :shadedshu

They are smart enough to put an x1 slot right under the first x16 slot, so dual x16 CF = onboard sound.
Yes, the other 2 slots are only capable of x8.
Isn't the whole poitn of 790FX is dual X16 / quad x4?

Somehow I doubt it will be a common thing for anything but LGA 1366 socket mobos. Besides which, AMD tends to be slow in the updating of it's memory controllers. It seems like they get reused from generation to generation of processor, and only update it every once in a while.

They give in to the "sound card" crowd, get flack from the quad Crossfire crowd. MSI just can't win

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A lot of those people have never owned an MSI board, if they knew how stable they were they might change their tune, besides which, when you hear about most "extreme" overclocks, people aren't using MSI boards, with overclocking being the hip thing for enthusiasts, they tend to flock to the most well regarded in the light of overclocking. I love my Eclipse, it's been a great board since day one...Just over a year ago now.

Somehow I doubt it will be a common thing for anything but LGA 1366 socket mobos. Besides which, AMD tends to be slow in the updating of it's memory controllers. It seems like they get reused from generation to generation of processor, and only update it every once in a while.

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The same goes both ways.
Intel haven't updated their memory controller for quite a while until the the LGA 1156 and 1366 platforms.
As far as tri-channel goes, not even the i7 needs that bandwidth, this is evident from how the 1156 i7 performs.

On top of that, MSI have some of the dumbest slot layouts on the market.
Just look at their 790FX-GD70, where on earth should you put your sound card? :shadedshu

They are smart enough to put an x1 slot right under the first x16 slot, so dual x16 CF = onboard sound.
Yes, the other 2 slots are only capable of x8.
Isn't the whole poitn of 790FX is dual X16 / quad x4?

Click to expand...

In any of the other pci-e slots that are provided

You dont need a dedicated 1x slot for a sound card. If you have 4 pci-e slots and are only using 2 for crossfire then stick a sound card in one of the other availible slots.

I think it's worth pointing out the obvious for a few of the people posting earlier in the thread: PCI-E 16x slots may be used for any PCI-E configuration all the way down to PCI-E 1x cards. It's not that they're useless so much as they're giving you a wide array of options in how you want to orient your graphics cards relative to the rest of the system, which is great given the fact that almost all current-gen cards are or will be dual-slot, and some custom configurations now call for as many as three.

Now all we need are those cheap PCI-E 1x add-on cards... That we've needed... For years now...

I know what you mean, but according to the manual only the 2 of ths slots are electrically x16.
That is the slot your GTX 280 is in, and the slot that your X-Fi is in. :shadedshu

The other 2 slots are x8 only and, and when pluged in it switches to x16/x8/x8 mode.
It doesn't say what happens if you put an x1 card in.
The most "logical" way is assuming that the bios is dumb.....
Since I haven't seen anyone try out what happens.